Our New Bird!

[ColtHandorf]

Turaco are such interesting little dinosaur birds. I have a lot of friends that work with them and breed them here in the States either privately in in AZA accredited zoos. They are really neat. Good luck finding a male for her. The chicks are easy to hand rear. I have a couple of friends with pairs up in the northwest that do it fairly often.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Turaco are such interesting little dinosaur birds. I have a lot of friends that work with them and breed them here in the States either privately in in AZA accredited zoos. They are really neat. Good luck finding a male for her. The chicks are easy to hand rear. I have a couple of friends with pairs up in the northwest that do it fairly often.

Indeed they are, they do look like little dinosaurs!

Oh that's awesome! Do they breed a range of colours? I think the white Turacos are so pretty.

We've managed to get Pretty a mate too!

However, there was a change of plan. The person we ordered Pretty's mate from saw the pictures I posted here because we sent him them.

He looked at the photos and said Pretty is 100% a male

He's been breeding them for 30+ years so somehow he can spot the difference so he sent us a DNA sexed female! We now have a pair but are going introduce them once settled.

Also, our Lilac Brested Roller pair arrived today at the same time so their aviary is waiting for them!

 

[ColtHandorf]

Oh that's awesome! Do they breed a range of colours? I think the white Turacos are so pretty.

I don't think they have whites, but they have a lot of different species.

That was nice of him to send you a female instead. I'm glad he was able to spot the difference.

We'll need pictures of the Lilac-breasted Rollers.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

I don't think they have whites, but they have a lot of different species.

That was nice of him to send you a female instead. I'm glad he was able to spot the difference.

We'll need pictures of the Lilac-breasted Rollers.

The photos aren't the best they're taken on an old phone but when they're more settled I'll get some half decent photos with my camera!

Anyways, here is some photos of them

They're currently moulting so we're looking forward to their full plumage coming back.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Sadly the female roller passed away last night, we're absolutely devastated.

Yesterday we had extreme rain fall whilst we were out. On the afternoon she was sitting hunched on the floor in the aviary.

She was damp but not soaking but was kind of wobbling a bit.

I picked her up and she sat in my hand for around 45 mins and I was just stroking her then she fell asleep. She was hand raised so was hand tame and liked human contact so she seemed happy enough.

Once she was warmed up i popped her in her nest box with some food and water with fingers crossed for the next day.

Came out this morning and she had passed during the night, the male was sitting on top of the nest box.

They were both in good health so I highly doubt it was illness that killed her.

However, the male had been more recently attacking her and pulling out her tail feathers.

The only two things I can think caused it was either the drastic weather change (although the male was not effected by this at all so I'm not sure) or it was possibly that they were never a pair and that the male wanted to get rid of her. The stress of him attacking her could have done some damage.

They were sold as a pair but I guess we could only take the sellers word for it.

They were definitely male and female but that doesn't always mean they'll get along.

Honestly such a shame. It's always the most friendliest ones that you loose.

 

[ColtHandorf]

Oh no! I'm so sorry. I know exactly how that is raising finches and other softbills. It's possible that they were a pair and that he was ready to breed and she was not. I've seen that happen where a male just pestered a hen until she wasn't eating or drinking. If you have the ability to have a necropsy performed, I would look into it. And to be on the safe side, I'd also contact the seller and let them know what happened and inquire if there was any sort of health guarantee. I always offer one with my birds.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

Oh no! I'm so sorry. I know exactly how that is raising finches and other softbills. It's possible that they were a pair and that he was ready to breed and she was not. I've seen that happen where a male just pestered a hen until she wasn't eating or drinking. If you have the ability to have a necropsy performed, I would look into it. And to be on the safe side, I'd also contact the seller and let them know what happened and inquire if there was any sort of health guarantee. I always offer one with my birds.

It didn't seem like a trying to breed kind of aggression he would fly over to her out of nowhere and rip her feathers out and try to peck her eyes.

It literally came out of nowhere. Both doing great then full on attack mode from the male.

The female always managed to get food and water they never fought over that.

As for a necropsy, I asked our local farm vet for one on a chicken a while back and I received no reply even though they do them. I tried ringing but they just kept saying they'd call me back and never did unfortunately. I think that's pretty bad service, if they wouldn't do it they should just say in the first place.

There was no guarantee, we only got that during postage/travel. I don't personally have contact with the breeder since it was a family member of mine that purchased and ordered them. I have pictures of the female roller so he might send them over to the breeder and say what's happened.

I had a good check over of her body and she had no signs of illness physically. It was most likely due to the fact that the male was stressing her when he was attacking her and then she got wet and cold in the rain.

 

[Fur-N-Fowl]

So a little update!

The male roller is housed in an inside aviary now and we're hoping to find another female that he will pair up with.

We also now have another pair of Turacos! So we have the Red Crested Turaco pair and also a pair of Guinea Turacos.

The Guinea Turacos are so friendly, they just hope over and devour grapes from your hand.

 

[ColtHandorf]

That’s awesome!

 

[Crestcrazy2]

So a little update!

The male roller is housed in an inside aviary now and we're hoping to find another female that he will pair up with.

We also now have another pair of Turacos! So we have the Red Crested Turaco pair and also a pair of Guinea Turacos.

The Guinea Turacos are so friendly, they just hope over and devour grapes from your hand.

Oh wow ! Please post pics of the new turacos !
So sorry about your roller I think you've got some of the prettiest birds in the world !